Wednesday, January 14, 2015

TOOK ME A FEW SWEEPS OF THE NIGHT SKY BUT I FINALLY FOUND IT

First a thank you to always alert Ed at The Peregrinating Graybeard for pointing out an incorrect link I had included for Doug Laning’s Miss Adventure Travels in my Tuesday night post. I corrected that error this morning & my apologies to Doug for that incorrect link. What would we Bloggers do if we didn’t have our ever vigilante reader watch dogs out here eh:))

I SEE A CHERUBIC LITTLE PUPPY DOG PERSON FLOATING ALONG ON IT’S BACK OVER TOP THE MOTORHOME

It took me a bit of looking in Tuesday night’s dark sky but I finally found it. Checking an on-line celestial map before heading outside I knew to begin my search west of a bright star called Aldebaran & luckily knew what to expect when I found what I was looking for because this was not my first time sighting this kind of object. My object of search was Comet Lovejoy. Took me a few sweeps with my Bausch & Lomb 7x50 binoculars but sure enough there it was barely visible in my view as a very faint smudge against an expansive star studded ebony sky. I had better be dusting off my 80mm Stellarvue Nighthawk telescope shortly for a closer look.

USING A SCISSORS I TRIMMED ALL DEAD STUFF OFF EACH PLANT BEFORE PLANTING

I ALWAYS LOVE TO HAVE A GOOD REASON TO SCRATCH ME AROUND IN SOME DIRT:))

It’s a good thing I re-located our Friend Connect box in my right hand side bar or I wouldn’t have noticed we picked up another Blog Follower overnight. We here at the Bunch welcome Jan Mains to our travels & stay at home times. I couldn’t find a blog for Jan because whenever a link takes me into Google + land I seem to become lost & have difficulty finding my way around. Am hoping the link I have included takes you to Jan’s ‘About’ page. Looks like Jan & husband Bill are very active RV’ers belonging to several RV related clubs including the Escapees.

A RELAXING AFTERNOON SHELTERED FROM A COOL WIND

I wasn’t long in planting all my Aloe Vera plants this morning. Majority of them went into my Cactus beds with 6 smaller ones going into clay pots. Will be interesting now to see just how many of them actually live. At least I was able to give 35 plants a fighting chance at life again. And that in my books is classed as a good feeling:))

FAR END OF THIS FLOWER BED WAS A HARD DIG TUESDAY

LOADING UP THROWN OUT ALOE VERA PLANTS AT OUR NEIGHBORS TO RE-PLANT IN OUR CACTUS BEDS…YOU CAN SEE A FEW OF THEM I PLANTED & THEY WILL SPREAD

Completed my 2 little painting projects today as well. When I opened a can of brown paint I had used to paint our fireplace bricks 2 winters ago I found it had jelled to a Jell-O consistency. No matter as I added some water & stirred vigorously. It was a door frame I used it on & the frame looks fine now as if it was made out of adobe. Other project was some white paint on a ceiling repair. We’re good to go:))

TWO BIRDS IN A BUSH

Took us for a short 5 minute drive this afternoon up Ghost Town Road to have a look at a few 4.5 acre properties for sale…………………….

CAN YOU IMAGINE HAVING THIS VIEW FROM YOUR FRONT YARD

AND THIS VIEW FROM YOUR BACK YARD FILLED WITH COUNTLESS SAGUAROS:)))))

GROANER’S CORNER:(( Three guys go in for a job interview, all at the same office. The first one goes in for his interview and the interviewer says, "What's the first thing you see when you look at me?" The guy says, "That's not too hard, you've got no ears." The interviewer says, "That's it, get out, you'll never be seen around here again." The second man takes his turn and is asked the same question. The applicant replies, "Uh, you've got no ears." The interviewer throws the guy out, cursing and yelling that he'll never get a job with his company. As he is leaving, the second guy warns the third guy, "Listen man, whatever you do, don't say he hasn't got any ears. He's so touchy with the ear thing." "Okay," said man #3 on his way into the office. Once inside he is told, "Name the first thing you notice when you look at me." The guy answers, "That's easy, you wear contacts." The interviewer was flabbergasted, "How on earth did you know that, son?" "Well Sir, anybody knows you can't wear glasses if you don’t have any ears."

ha ha!!! that groaner is funny! I wonder how many snakes take up residence in your yard in the summer. have you ever seen any out there in your stay? I know you are out of here before the heat hits but was just wondering how that works for you. I sure do enjoy your blog Al.... thanks. blessings

Took me a while to catch up on all the posts I've missed. The clouds and cardinals, all the landscaping and improvements, and jeep drives. ..Plus always finding time to reference fellow and/or new bloggers. Some good stuff in these pages! Thank you!

We are both looking forward to getting back out in the desert to see the night sky in all its glory - and to find those occasional visitors like the recent comet! My single aloe vera is really suffering on our patio here at the apartment....perhaps I should send it to Al's Aloe Rescue :-) Wish I could purchase all those "lots" so they could always look just like that - with an occasional boondocking RV or two :-)

AL'S CAMERA EQUIPMENT

A sometimes asked question readers have about my blog is what kind of a camera do I use. Well I have 8 of them and use them all. Five Nikon DSLR's, two quality Sony point and shoots plus one older Canon point and shoot.

'UPDATE':: July 2017 Thanks to a very generous blog reader I have been able to update my Nikon camera equipment and supplement my camera gear with a couple additional fine Sony cameras as well.I now have a 'donated' Nikon D7200 sporting my new Nikkor 18-300 3.5 zoom lens. Also have picked up a new Nikkor 1.8 primary 35mm lens. In addition I also now have a Sony RX100-3 camera as well as a Sony Exmore Cybershot. I have given my Canon Powershot point and shoot camera to a neighbor.

- In early 2017 I replaced my Nikon D-90 camera with a new D-3400 after the 'auto focus' feature on my aging D-90 quit working. The Nikon D-90 had been my work horse camera sporting a Nikkor 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 lens. I used this camera for most of my landscapes and I now have it set up for night photography where 'auto focus' is not necessary.

-My older faithful and favorite Nikon D-40 finally packed it in during the summer of 2015 and I replaced it with a new Nikon D-3100.

- Previous to my Nikon D-90, most of my photos were taken with my old faithful Nikon D-50 from 2006 to early 2011 whereupon the D-50 suffered a rather gruesome death when it fell off a table onto a cement porch in southeastern Arizona. The 70-300mm lens on the camera survived the fall but the D-50 did not. My Nikkor lenses are interchangable between the D-90 the D-3100 and the D-3400.